Forty years ago today, December 13, 1972, Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan (pictured) and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt took the last human footsteps on the Moon. Cernan was the last man to leave the surface. Apollo 17 was the last crewed flight to go beyond low Earth orbit and was the longest manned lunar landing flight. The mission also had the longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities, the largest lunar sample return, and the longest time in lunar orbit.
That is so sad PT. Great image though!
“Sad” was the only comment I could think to add, but I decided it would just depress me more.
Tell me about it. I was in the Air Force recruiter’s office just the day before (two days after I turned 17), filled with all my pipe dreams of jumping through whatever hoops I had to to become an astronaut…
You and how many others, I wonder …
Hey! It’s snowing on the moon!! 😉
Heh, yeah, I noticed last night how odd that looked.
40 years ago? Wow…
Seems like yesterday. We should have continued the missions. Practice make perfect, and we learned something new each time.
In another 10-20 years, there won’t be a human left on earth who has walked on the moon and who can tell us first hand what it was like. So sad.
Isn’t it a sad thing that our once exciting and truly awesome (i try to reserve use of the word for appropriate descriptors) space program has been downsized and backshelved? I was a freshman in high school when Apollo 17 flew. The future was limitless back then. I really believed I might visit the moon during my lifetime… ok, remember I was a freshman! Now not only are we not funding space exploration, but we have killed the Shuttles and have relegated the International SpaceStation to a slow decline and probable death since the good old USA cannot return there. Sigh. I just started reading with your Fern Lake fire coverage– you have another devoted reader. Keep the common sense and truth-filled articles coming; we need them.
The decline of our US space program has been heart-breaking. Oh, I know we’re putting rovers on Mars, etc. But it’s not the same thing as manned flights to the Moon and beyond.
And thank you. That’s probably the nicest compliment I’ve ever gotten here. I’m blushing.